Wednesday, February 28, 2018

American
Tower Corporation executives are pleased with the towerco’s financial
performance in 2017. Company Chairman, President and CEO Jim Taiclet
told brokers and Wall Street analysts on Tuesday’s earnings call: “We
far exceeded our goals” for the 10-year plan. One metric — the company
ended 2017 with 150,000 sites for towers and small cell systems; the
goal was 100,000.

Officials estimate aggregate capex
for mobile carriers to be in the $30 billion range in 2018. That bodes
well for strong tenant lease growth this year for AMT, according to the
executive. (See financial figures here.)

AMT is launching the next 10-year
plan to “deliver operational efficiency to expand” profit margins, he
said. The company’s core profit-maker remains its “extensive mobile
tower footprint.” Taiclet said AMT would continue to build and acquire
additional tower assets that meet its investment criteria. Continue Reading

Monday, February 26, 2018

In what officials described as an initial step at last Thursday’s FCC meeting, they unveiled an updatednational broadband map
to track internet speeds across the country. It’s envisioned as a key
resource for consumers, policymakers and researchers. However there was
disagreement among the Commissioners over whether the new map will
really do that, since it only includes fixed broadband deployment, not
mobile, and leaves out price.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai described it as a “very meaningful first step as to where access is and isn’t.” Users
can search down to the zip code level to find out what companies offer
broadband service and at what speed. They can also filter results by
speed or region provider, for example, and a color-coded map gives an
overview.Continue Reading

Friday, February 23, 2018

Having just received the inaugural Legislative and Regulatory Champion of the Year Award at NATE UNITE 2018 on Wednesday, Congressman (her preferred designation of her title)
Marsha Blackburn, Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce
Subcommittee on Communications & Technology, addressed the issues
facing the telecom infrastructure industry and Washington’s efforts to
see them expedited.“Broadband has long been a priority
of mine, and here’s why,” Blackburn said. “It represents more than just
the fiber in the ground or the towers in the air. Broadband brings with
it the promise of better education, better healthcare, sustainable
economic development, and an increased quality of life. It
connects people in times of crisis, and it ensures our first responders
have the tools they need when responding to emergencies.”

Blackburn listed three guiding principles “it would behoove us to follow”:Continue Reading

The person he could be referring to
could easily be himself 24 years later and one month before he signed
the Emancipation Proclamation. He spoke before Congress in 1862 saying:
“The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the
occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

What fascinates us about great men
like Lincoln and Washington is their steadfastness in the face of
diversity and chaos. And we’re not talking annoying setbacks or minor
squabbles but seemingly insurmountable hurdles that, if not overcome,
would change the course of America’s history. They not only faced
opposition from great armies dedicated to their personal destruction but
from friends, confidantes and colleagues…even their own government… who
doubted them at critical moments. Continue Reading

Friday, February 16, 2018

As
the first stage of the five-year First Responder Network Authority
(FirstNet) buildout gets underway in Oregon, state officials, AT&T
and FirstNet say rural deployment will not be an afterthought, reported Radio Resource Media Group.

“Rural is something that won’t be
waiting until last,” said Carrie Johnson, director of public-safety
advocacy and tribal affairs specialist for AT&T’s FirstNet program.
“It is a key priority during every stage of the buildout and beyond
those first five years as well.”

With each stage of the buildout,
there is a requirement for rural coverage to ensure that AT&T
doesn’t wait until the fifth year to begin deploying that coverage, said
David Soloos, the single point of contact (SPOC) for Oregon. Continue Reading

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

The
2018 Olympic Winter Games offer a chance for sports enthusiasts across
the globe to watch the best athletes in the world showcase their talents
in Pyeongchang, South Korea. This year, wireless companies are
competing as well, using the Olympic Games to debut plans for the first
public test of 5G wireless technology, according to a blog from Nikhil Adnani, CTO at thinkRF.
The South Korean government identified Information and Communications
Technology as one of its chief goals for the Winter Games, and
demonstrations from several companies will show the public what it can
expect from 5G technology, Ultra-HD broadcasting, Internet of Things,
and virtual and augmented reality systems.

South Korean company KT Corp is the
official sponsor of the Olympic Winter Games and will be prominent in 5G
demonstrations, but competitors SK Telecom and LG U+ will be presenting
as well. According to Adnani, the companies have been secretive about
specific plans for their demonstrations, but the 5G experience at the
Games is expected to allow data transmission at 20 times faster than 4G,
with Ultra-HD broadcasts that offer four times the screen resolution of
current broadcasts. Continue Reading

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

The White House on Monday released a55-page document
for President Donald Trump’s proposal to overhaul the nation’s
infrastructure. The plan calls for Congress to write legislation for a
$1.5 trillion infrastructure package that focuses on public-private
partnerships, including funding from state and local governments,
reports The Hill.

The plan is centered around four main
goals: generating money, streamlining the permitting process, investing
in rural infrastructure projects and advancing workforce training.
White House officials said cutting down the environmental permitting
process down to two years or less would help infrastructure deployment.

The federal government would contribute $200 billion to the package, a figure Democrats have already said is too small. The money is included in the Trump administration’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal, also released on Monday. The $4.4 trillion proposal, titled “Efficient, Effective, Accountable: An American Budget,” sets forth the president’s priorities as Congress prepares to consider spending bills for the next fiscal year. Continue Reading

Monday, February 12, 2018

The bipartisan temporary budget deal
lawmakers wrangled over until the early hours of Friday morning includes
$20 billion in infrastructure spending, including rural broadband. That
breaks down to $10 billion for FY18 and $10 billion for FY19 – to
invest in infrastructure, including programs related to rural broadband,
rural water and wastewater, clean and safe drinking water, energy,
innovative capital projects, and surface transportation.

“This is an important step forward to
help bridge the digital divide and connect the hardest to reach areas,”
said USTelecom President/CEO Jonathan Spalter. Energy
and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) said the agreement
“marks an important step forward” on several priorities the committee
has championed for many months.

Passage was rocky in both houses of
Congress. Late Thursday evening, the White House instructed federal
agencies to prepare for a possible partial federal government shutdown.
The Senate cleared the measure after 1 a.m. Friday morning. The House
voted on the measure at around 5:30 a.m. and the President signed it
into law before 9 a.m. The government partially shutdown for about five
hours overnight, but reopened Friday morning. Continue Reading

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Don’t you wish you paid a little more
attention in Spanish class? You just might want to brush the dust off
of that particular text book because the burgeoning telecommunications
market in Mexico needs over 50,000 towers constructed to keep up with
demand for service. According to a report from Mexico News Daily,
the country currently has approximately 27,000 towers but needs at
least 80,000 to effectively support its mobile broadband network. “There
are few countries in Latin America, and perhaps in the world, as
complicated as Mexico in terms of telecommunications infrastructure, and
while this industry is often described as a gold mine, in reality it is
very far from that,” analysts from TowerXchange said. Continue Reading

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

By Leslie Stimson, Washington Bureau Chief, Inside TowersUPDATE
The City and the Port of Los Angeles agree with New York City when it
comes to the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) rules for the 3.5
GHz band. They want the Commission to leave them substantially the same.
The current licensing framework for the 3550-3700 MHz band, in place
since 2015, “is generating substantial interest and investment, while
the Commission’s proposed changes are unwarranted,” the City tells the FCC
in filed comments. “In particular, the 3.5 GHz band’s smaller license
areas and shorter license terms, among other characteristics, must be
preserved.”
In 2016, reacting to a proposal by CTIA and T-Mobile, the agency
sought comment on their proposals to lengthen license terms to 10 years
and increase license areas by using traditional Partial Economic areas
rather than the current census tracts. In order to spur investment and
greater certainty for the band, T-Mobile also proposed the Commission
convert all 150 MHz of spectrum in each CBRS market open to priority
access licensing. CBRS is now limited to 70 MHz of PAL per market. Reply
comments to 17-258, “Promoting Investment in the 3550-3700 MHz Band”
were due January 29. Continue Reading

Monday, February 5, 2018

The subject of increasing rural
broadband deployment on Tribal Lands was the subject of unusually public
bickering late Friday between FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and
Chairman Ajit Pai.Clyburn issued a statement asking why
almost a year has gone by and the item is not out, since Pai
“repeatedly claims that closing the digital divide is among his top
priorities.” She continued: “As my colleagues in the Majority are fond
of saying, companies need certainty. I agree. With a substantial
percentage of those living in rural areas of Tribal lands lacking
high-speed broadband, the time is now for an up or down vote that will
ensure that these communities do not lose the connectivity they
desperately want and need.”

Pai, meanwhile, blasted back with a
response, noting he circulated an item to colleagues in February 2017.
The order would increase federal funding for broadband infrastructure on
Tribal lands, explaining such siting is difficult, with higher
operational expenses than on non-Tribal land. Continue Reading

Friday, February 2, 2018

Wireless carriers are prepared for record mobile data use in and around U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis this
weekend for the Super Bowl. Nearly 70,000 fans will be in the stadium
and another one million visitors are expected to use their smartphones
and other mobile devices in the area.

VERIZONUpgrades consisting of macro towers,
small cell and Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) are part of the mix,
according to a blog post onMedium by Kristen Beckman, Community Manager of the Wireless Infrastructure Association. Verizon
has been preparing for two years; it deployed 24 macro cell tower sites
and 230+ small cells. The new infrastructure combined, boosted
Verizon’s network capacity in the Twin Cities metro by 500 percent,
according to the carrier.

In downtown Minneapolis, which is
hosting the free football festival Super Bowl Live, Verizon doubled its
network capacity on Nicollet Mall by placing small cells in bus
shelters, a new solution for the carrier. “Verizon also installed
security cameras on street lights with its small cells in the downtown
area in partnership with the city of Minneapolis and bolstered capacity
at the Mall of America and Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport
with neutral-host DAS equipment,” writes Beckman. Inside the stadium,
Verizon added 48 percent more antennas to its DAS, using drinkrail,
handrail and under-the-seat antennas, as well as Matsing Ball antennas,
installed 330 feet above the field. Continue Reading

Thursday, February 1, 2018

FiberTower, which is being acquired
by AT&T, agreed to give up hundreds of high-band millimeter wave
licenses to settle litigation with the FCC. AT&T could have used the
spectrum for 5G development. As part of the agreement, FiberTower
will give up all of its 94 licenses in the 24 GHz band and 595 licenses
in the 39 GHz band. Additionally, AT&T agreed to pay the U.S.
Treasury $27 million to end the dispute.

At issue, was the Wireless Bureau’s
claim that FiberTower, “had not shown that it had provided substantial
service for the 689 licenses,” according to theorder
released by the Broadband Division of the Wireless Telecommunications
Bureau. The bureau refused FiberTower’s request to review an earlier
decision, saying the company “had not shown that its failure to meet the
construction deadline” were due to circumstances beyond its control.

The licenses that FiberTower agreed
to give up will help the Commission “re-band” the 39 GHz band, “which is
necessary prior to auction of vacant and available licenses” in that
band, said the FCC. The agency added that the $27 million payment helps
address potential concerns “about undue enrichment of FiberTower with
respect to licenses acquired at auction for which it has not yet
demonstrated its compliance with Commission performance requirements.”
The money also puts FiberTower “in substantially the same position” as
most of the other license holders in the band. Continue Reading

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